True. These conversations are bound to happen. Acknowledge them as part of your work.

False. If you feel this way, it probably shows. This means you have not understood and dealt with what people want you to know.

False. When you cut people off you are responding to incomplete information.

False. This behavior communicates your inattention.

True. Try to remove the distractions or to move your conversation to another setting.

False. You can tell when people are not listening to you, and they can tell as well.

True. Good. Just remember not to imply agreement when still gathering information.

False. This does happen to people sometimes, but it should be an infrequent occasion.

True. Well-timed questions are important to verifying understanding.

False. Listening is a full-concentration activity.

False. You may need to express disagreement, but by responding immediately you prevent the speaker from giving his or her complete view.

True. Practice focusing your attention on ideas and related nonverbal communication and feelings.

True or False. You probably cannot do this while a conversation or speech is in progress, but it may be worth doing afterwards.

True or False. This would be a good technique in an unemotional atmosphere, but note taking otherwise looks too clinical and will hamper communication.

False. Detailed notes are rarely needed.

True. You may occasionally react emotionally to particular words, but manage these feelings so you can still “hear.”

False. People will conclude that you are belittling their concerns by joking with them or that you are uncomfortable with emotional aspects of problems.

True. Allow the speaker to tell you the topic of concern in case it is an emergency. If not, set aside a specific time to talk.

True. It is easy and effective to sit where you can avoid distraction.

True or False. Appearance may be important for some jobs, if someone offers you information, assess its value, not the speaker's appearance.

True. You cannot take on everyone's problems, but work problems are important to you. How people feel affects their job performance.

True. Some people may not want to ask questions in front of a group. You could ask if people think of questions later to let you know within a certain time frame.

True. Nonverbal communication is sometimes more revealing than words.

False. Practice listening an sifting through rhetoric to find key points.

False. If you believe than an entire gender, age group, or ethnic group has communication problems, you may not know how to interpret that group's nonverbal communication. Cues such as word emphasis, pauses, eye contact, and so forth vary according to a person's gender, age, and background.

False. A moderate temperature is best.

True. If you are paying attention and have followed the speaker's meaning, you may anticipate what is coming, but wait for the speaker to finish before you confirm.

True. It may be an uphill battle, but understanding the costs of tuning out will help you will help you soldier on.

False. It is hard, but you can train yourself to do it.

True. You can see and hear better the closer you are, and the less likely for sideline activity to distract you.